Sealing means



Aug. 1?, 1954 s. M. MOBERG 2,686,379

SEALING MEANS Filed March 26, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR. S/GURD MANFRED MOBERG BY HIS ATTORNEY Aug. 117, 1954 s. M. MOBERG 2,686,379

SEALING MEANS Filed March 26, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ti E- Fi W 1/ k Ti 1 D.

INVENTOR:

SIGURD MANFRED MOBERG- BY HIS ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 17, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SEALING MEANS Sigurd Manfred Moberg, Pompton Plains, N. J assignor to E. J. Brooks Company, Newark, N. J a corporation of New Jersey Application March 26, 1952, Serial No. 278,555

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to sealing means, and more particularly to the so-called meat or poultry seals.

For many years it has been the custom, especially with respect to fowl, to sell small pieces, such as a wing, or leg, or breast, separately, and it has also been the custom, in order to guarantee the standard of the product sealed, to afiix a seal or tag to each separate piece sold. The custom of selling fowl in the manner above indicated has increased to a very great extent, so much so that the labor of attaching the seals to so many individual pieces has become very burdensome, timeconsuming and expensive. In the art as formerly practiced, it has been the custom to use a sheetmetal seal, the main-sections of which form open jaws, to introduce a piece of the fowl between said open jaws which engage opposite sides or surfaces of the piece to be sealed, and thereafter close the seal.

The main object of this invention is to increase the speed with which a seal can be attached to a piece of material and to lessen the labor of applying the seal, thereby efiecting an important decrease in cost.

One of the main features of the invention resides in sealing means whereby it is not necessary, as a preliminary step, to introduce opposite surfaces of the material between the jaws of the seal, the sealing means being so constructed that, by merely engaging one surface of the material to be sealed, said surface will be gathered and sealed. As a result, the operator can perform the sealing operation quickly and while the material to be sealed is moving past him on a conveyor.

Another feautre of the invention is a seal so constructed that the operator may have his choice, under different conditions, as to whether he wishes to introduce opposite surfaces of the element to be sealed between the jaws of the seal as a preliminary step, or whether he desires to omit this step and to engage the seal merely with one surface of the material to be sealed.

Other features of the invention will appear as the specification proceeds.

Fig. 1 is a plan view of one face of the seal before it is bent into final shape;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the other face of said blank;

Fig. 3 is an edge view of the blank, looking in the direction of arrow 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an edge view of the seal, showing the parts bent up and ready for shipment to the user;

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of Fig. 4, looking in the direction of arrows 5-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is aview looking in the direction of arrows 6-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. '7 is a sectional view substantially on the plane of line I1 of Fig. 6;

Figs. 8, 9, l0 and 11 are a series of more or less diagrammatic views to show the method of applying the seal to the surface of a piece of material, the seal and the material being shown in section;

Fig. 12 is a view similar to Fig. 11 but shows the position occupied by the parts when the operator has released the seal after applying it; and

Fig. 13 is a perspective view of a part of a fowl showing the seal applied to one surface thereof.

20 and 2! indicate the two main-sections of the seal, one of which main-sections, 20, is longer than the other. Said main-sections are bendable toward one another on a weakened bending line 22 located at the point where said sections are connected. Main-section 2G is provided at its free end with an upstanding guide-portion 23 struck up from the material and surrounding an opening 24 that extends through said main-section. Main-section 2| carries at its outer free end a piercing-member 25 that is bendable with respect to main-section 2 l.

The seal is shipped to the consumer in the form shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6, from which it appears that main-sections 2i] and 2! lie angularly disposed with respect to each other, and that piercing-member 25 is angularly disposed with respect to main-section 2! that carries it. It will also be seen that said piercing-member 25 is provided with areversely bent tip 26, and it will be observed that, in closing the seal by bending said mainsections toward one another, said tip 26 is brought into contact with curved inner surface 2! of mainsection 20, and thereby tip 26 is deflected into guide-portion 23, and thence through opening 24. It is, of course, perfectly feasible to insert a piece of material between the open jaws of the seal and, upon closing the seal, piercing-member 25 will pierce the material and then pass into upstanding guide-portion 23 and through opening 24.

However, the seal is so constructed that it is not necessary as a first step to introduce opposite surfaces of a piece of material between the open jaws of the seal, as will appear from a consideration of Figs. 8 to 12 inclusive. As shown in Fig. 8, the seal is portrayed as engaging one surface only, say skin 28 of a piece of chicken. As shown in Fig. 9, upstanding guide-portion 23 functions as a combined abutment and socketmember when the opposite free ends of the seal are brought into contact with surface 28, and pressure of the fingers of the operator brings the two main-sections toward each other by a bending action along line 22. Continued bending of said main-sections toward one another gathers the material of surface 28, as shown in Fig. 10, whereupon piercing-member 25 pierces gathered material 29 of surface 28. Eventually, piercingmember 25 engages curved surface 2'! of mainsection 20, thereby deflecting said piercing-memher into guide 23 and opening 24, as shown in Fig. 11. The sealing element may now be released by the operator and dropped into the position shown in Figs. 12 and 13.

Preferably, bending line 22 is weaker than the bending line between main-section 2| and piercing-member 25 so as to prevent-prematurebending of piercing-member 25 with respect to mainsection 2| in case the operator, in closing theseal, should exert pressure partly on main-section 2| and partly on piercing-member 25.

It may be observed from Figs. 10 and 11 that, as .the tip 26 enters opening 24, further pressing of main sections 29 and 2| toward each other involves some straightening of the reverse bend in the member 25. The force yielding this alteration of said reverse bend is sufiicient to constitute material opposition to closing of the device beyond the extent indicated in Fig. 11. The skin portion 29, then pocketed in the angle between the member 25 and main section 20, also aids in limiting closing of the device to the extent indicated. This limiting effect is important in that it provides room for the insertion of a knife or other prying instrument between main sections 20 and 2| to easily remove the device from the merchandise when desired. In the absence of such limiting factors, the two sections 29 and 2| would be pressed so closely together as to make it difiicult .or impossible to thus employa prying instrument so that removal of the tag would probably involve damage to the merchandise. Also, when the sections 20 and 2| are permitted to come close together, the edges of the section 2| would tend to embed themselves in and damage the merchandise either by defacing it or by impressing rust marks thereon if, as is usual, the tag is made of metal, the edges of which are not rust-proofed.

.A tag of sheet material comprising a first mainsection having a struck-upportion which defines a slit-opening toward one side edge of said first section and has an inner surface in acute angular relationship to an adjacent surface of said first section, a second main-section connected in angular relationship to said first main-section at an opposite side edge of the latter and bendable at such connection to a smaller angle relatively to said first section in closing the tag, a piercingmember connected to saidsecond section remote from said first-mentioned connection and extending angularly from said second section in an initial relationship thereto, within the angle formed by the two main-sections and bendable at the last-mentioned connection to a greater :angle relatively to said second section in closing the tag; the "piercing-member having a reversely bent tip, the distance from the tip extremity of the piercing-member to the said first-mentioned connection prior to closing of the tag being less than the distance between said first-mentioned connection and said slit-opening whereby to permit said reversely bent tip, upon bending of the ,two imam-sections at said first-mentioned connection to a smaller intervening angle, to pass the edge of .said struck-up portion and enter said slit-opening, and said inner surface of said struck-up portion and said-adjacent surface of said first main-section coacting with opposite faces of the reversely bent tip of said piercingmember to oppose angular movement of said piercing-member about its connection to said secondsection and thereby oppose complete flattening of the angle between the second main-section and the piercing-member when the two mainsections are bent toward each other in applying the device to merchandise and to preserve, between said two main-sections, a space for receiving a'prying instrument for opening the tag.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,932,101 Dietze Oct. 24, 1933 1,984,880 Ker et al Dec. 18, 1934 2,590,883 Nierhaus Apr. 1, 1952 2,611,198 Ashton Sept. 23, 1952 2,611,199 Stelzer Sept. 23, 1952 2,611,200 Ashton Sept. 23, 1952 2,653,401 Sutherland Sept. 29, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 39.637 Austria Nov. 10, 1909 

